232 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



rising in compact bodies as if propelled by a strong gust of 

 wind ; then, suddenly sinking, they disperse into smaller 

 battalions, not unlike vapours floating about a hill-side at early 

 morn, and when slightly agitated by a breeze ; or they resemble 

 luige columns of sand or smoke, changing their shape every 

 minute. 



Onward they come — a dark continuous cloud 



Of congregated myriads, numberless ; 



The rushing of whose wings is as the sound 



Of a broad river headlong in its course. 



Plunged from a mountain summit ; or the roar 



Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 



Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks ! — Southet, 



During their flight numbers are constantly alighting — an 

 action which has not inaptly been compared to the falling of 

 large snow-flakes. It is, however, not until the approach of 

 night that the locusts encamp. Woe to the spot they select as 

 a resting-place ! The sun sets on a landscape green with all 

 the luxuriance of tropieal vegetation ; it rises in the morning 

 over a region naked as the waste of the Sahara ! 



The locust is fierce, and strong, and grim, 

 And an armed maa is afraid of him ; 

 He comes like a winged shape of dread, 

 With his shielded back, and his armed head ; 

 And his double -wings for hasty flight. 

 And a keen unwearying appetite. 



He comes with famine and fear along; 



An army a million, maillion stro-ng. 



The Goth and the Vandal, and the dwarfish Hmra 



With their swarming people, wild and dun, 



Brought not the dread that the locust brings. 



When is heard the rush of their myriad wings. 



Prom the deserts of burning sand they speed. 



Where the lions roam, and tbe serpents breed. 



Far over the sea, away, away! 



And they darken the sun at noon of day. 



Like Eden the land before they find, 



But they leave it a desolate waste behind. 



The peasant grows pale when he sees them come. 

 And standeth before them, weak and dumb, 

 For they come like a raging fire in power, 

 And eat up a harvest in half an hour ; 

 And the trees are bare, and the land is brown. 

 As if trampled and trod by an army down. 



